Random Misfires and great loss of power

I have a 97 ram 1500 5.2l and recently had some misfires. I replaced the plugs a month ago with no problems. the other day i went hunting and on my way home my check engine light came on. i stopped at autozone to have them read my codes. I had random misfire. Also I cannot accelerate past 30mph on flat roads and 20 mph uphill, this is with the pedal all the way down. Anyone know where to look first? My vacuum hoses seem fine and there is no visible wear or damage anywhere near the intake or throttle body. plug wires seem good too.

Replace the cap and rotor and the wires and the plugs then start from there. Could still have a bad plug but other stuff could cause it.


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well i replaced the cap and rotor. I'm gonna check all my plugs and wires and for leaks again. I have notice my exhaust seems more quiet than usual. Could this be a cat converter problem? Previously I have noticed a rattle coming from underneath when accelerating but this isn't often.

Good way to find a vacuum leak, is to get some Carb cleaned and spray it around fittens and what not. If the truck idles high then you found your leak.

David

I just did that and no leaks. Might just have to suck up my pride and take it to a shop. lol

Like the other have said...

• Cap
• Rotor
• Wires
• Spark plugs

As for vacuum leaks check all you hose and such for cracks. The cruise control line is known to crack from battery acid. A way to test vacuum lines is to flex them a bit and look for the cracks to appear.

As for the other vacuum leak check you plenum gasket by looking down the bore of the throttle plate for engine oil.

i replaced all plugs, wires, cap and rotor. even got a new ignition coil. check engine linght went off. took it for a drive and still no change. I let it run to see if the light came back on and it hasn't i revved up to almost 3k rpm and it started to choke out some.

how many miles on the motor? blowed plenum gasket. which ruined your plugs.

and i had random misfires till i got new heads. magnum heads are very prone to cracking.

what plugs did you use? these magnum motors really like those cheapass stock champions. and dont like alot of other ones. regardless of what other people tell you about other plugs they have tried. i know this from many different magnum motor tuneups, the hard way.

I have the champion plugs

first thing i would do is check the plenum gasket like mopar 73 said. it can cuse alot of issues. are you burnin alot of oil?

I have in the past and it seemed t stop. I'll check it out. Will a plenum cause me to have such great power loss when accelerating? And will it make my engine seem like it going to choke out at 2500 rpm?

if your exhaust sounds different I'd get the cat checked.

Fuel pump. Check that. Sounds like your not getting enough fuel pressure

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Normally the Plenum will cause pinging and loss of power and mpgs. So sounds like fuel issue or maybe cats. I had a Dakota do something similar. Never did figure it out. Sold it before I looked into it real deep.

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Well I think my culprit is a blown head gasket. noticed a small leak near the cylinder head and checked my coolant and noticed only a few tiny specs of brown floating in it. it would explain the little mre than normal steam from the exhaust that has a slightly sweet smell to it.

Does anyone know any how to links? I searched google and cannot find any specific for my engine

And there ya have it. Well sounds like a fun process Don't forget to check out the service manuals in the tech section if you want to see what it involves.

You can look in here
http://www.ramforum.com/f77/2nd-gen-service-manual-986/

Thanks all for the replies. Great link too.

Glad to help. Luke thanks for the link.

Having similar issues recently need advice plz

okay so i have a 1997 ram with the 5.2L and it's a manual transmission. The other day i accidentally downshifted into second instead of 4th and my RPMs redlined for a moment then i started getting misfires. I didn't throw a code for about a week I'll explain that shortly. my truck still idles fine but when i'm accelerating at about 2,000 rpms it likes to make a popping/misfiring sound sometimes and loses power. sometimes i can push through it by shifting into a higher gear but i sometimes just back off the throttle until it calms down with the jerking (from loss of power) so i don't damage anything more than it already is. After a week the check engine light came on and i got the codes read. Misfire cylinder #1, #3, #4, #5, #7, and #8, as well as a random misfire code. Apparently just #2 and #6 are the only two that didn't throw a code and are presumably fine. I have since replaced the distributor cap and rotor, all new wires, and all new plugs (OEM plugs for my truck). Thought that did the trick because all of those parts i replaced looked pretty worn. Truck ran fine i went and got the check engine light cleared off. Then not even 5 minutes after resetting my check engine light it came back on during my ride home and started misfiring more. It's really hit or miss i could start her up now and she'll run fine for 20 minutes or i could just get the misfiring version, or even i can run her normally and get a misfire at 2200 rpm, back off throttle, and reaccelerate past 2200 rpm with no issues engine seemingly good as new. Does anyone know why i could be getting so many misfires (all cylinders throwing codes except #2 and #6) or any ideas as to what my solution might be?



I will get the codes re-checked in a couple hours and give an update.